To establish safe workplaces for women across our nation, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (also known as the "POSH Act") was passed into special legislation. For a safer and thriving campus culture, awareness of the legality of the POSH Act is essential. Akila RS came to the Krea University campus on November 26, 2023, to help disseminate information. Akila RS is an advocate based in Chennai and the co-founder of Paarvai Advisors, providing consultancy, capacity building and training services to organisations on workplace inclusion and diversity with a particular focus on implementing the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act.
The session began with breaking down the concept of consent and how it is not as binary as it is believed in popular media. Consent as a concept seems intuitive, something not very hard to grasp. However, one must understand how consent as a concept and consent in real life play out very differently. Much nuance is lost in putting consent as a simple conceptual understanding. Advocate Akila RS emphasises how consent is a very nuanced concept and, in practice, has to face the blurred lines. She then gives the history of the POSH Act by highlighting the Vishaka Guidelines 1997. She notes how the act only came into existence in 2013, almost 16 years after the judgement. She then elucidates what constitutes Sexual Harassment by going over various types of Sexual Harassment - physical contact and advances, demand or request for sexual favours, making sexually coloured remarks, showing pornography, and any other unwelcome physical, verbal or non-verbal conduct of a sexual nature, quid pro quo, and hostile work environment. When talking about a hostile work environment, it was crucial to define what a workplace constituted of. She finally talks about the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) at Krea University. She elaborates on its workings - how it works, what its purpose is, who is a part of the ICC, what its powers are, what happens when a complaint is filed, and how the people part of the complaint are involved in the process. She breaks down the policies in place at the University and what are the frameworks in place for anyone who would want to approach the ICC.
Krea, as a university, is very young, and the culture amongst students on campus is still being moulded. After the session, I approached Advocate Akila RS to have a one-on-one conversation about campus culture and how to support people who have experienced inappropriate incidents. She acknowledges how it is tricky because the safety and well-being of the person who experienced such an incident come above everything else. This, then, becomes a question of the larger campus culture. Such incidents are normalised when there aren’t enough conversations demystifying the air around socially uncomfortable topics. Addressing taboo issues and making sure there are forums to voice out their concerns and nuances on issues like consent and sexual harassment are crucial to having a healthy campus culture. “A campus is only fun when it is safe”, something Advocate Akila RS said that should be the biggest takeaway anyone should take from my conversation with her. As the student body of a young liberal arts university, the onus is on us to build a safer and more aware campus culture to set a standard for everyone who is part of the institution and will be a part of it in the years to come.
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